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Ancient vampires
In a time many centuries before there were Pillars or Guardians to serve them, a time before Vampires and Sarafan , the divine Ancients ruled Nosgoth benevolently. A kind and generous race, they cared for the land and all its inhabitants and brought all they found together to worship The Elder God , preaching their belief in his purifying cycle of birth, death and rebirth through his Wheel of Fate . Through worship of the Elder God you accepted his doctrine of a pre-fated world, where freewill was an illusion. History As devout worshippers of the Elder God, the Ancients believed in his doctrine completely. Unquestioning follows of his every word, when they were told to bring all races together in worship of him they did just that. The Humans became followers also, but it was the race known as the Hylden , and their refusal to be converted that spelled the dawn of the dark times of Nosgoth. Unwilling to accept a religion they deemed wrong, the feud they had quickly grew into a war that after a thousand years of battle proved equally devastating for both races. To end the war both sides devised a way to finish the war once and for all. While the Hylden designed a Device capable of eliminating all life on Nosgoth except them, the Ancients used their magical skills to tear a whole in the fabric of reality to a parallel realm known as the Demon Dimension in order to cast their advisories in. Countless generations of Ancients and Hylden had died in this war and yet to end the war both races plotted to completely erase the other from Nosgoth altogether. Nine sorcerers among the Ancients banished the Hylden to the Demon Dimension and, to ensure they could not return, raised the Pillars of Nosgoth to seal the passages between the two realms shut for as long as they stood. As the banishment was completed the Hylden cursed their enemies with their final breath. However they did not fully understand the true nature of their curse until after the dust had settled. They had been made sterile, effectively making their race unable to rebuild and prosper after the war, as well as being given a horrible bloodlust. It was the final part of the curse that truly condemned the Ancients as a race as it struck them with immortality . The effects of this were felt immediately as their Elder God, a his Wheel of Fate, turned his back on them falling silent. The now immortal Ancients, having never been cut off from their God, slowly went mad with anguish. Many committed suicide in order to return to the Wheel of Fate. Those that choose to carry on immortal and godless where governed by the original members of the Circle for a time. In time the Ancient Guardians also met an end, although it is not known if they committed suicide as their past brethren did or in an as yet unknown feud which resulted in them being entombed, which caused the Pillars to select new Guardians at birth. Since the Ancients did not give birth anymore the Pillars selected Human replacements which caused distress amongst the Ancients. Knowing that the Pillars had to remain under their rule they discovered a means of passing their curse on to Humans and the human born Guardians, effectively creating a new race known as Vampires . But inevitably the Human Guardians opposed this ritual forced upon them and rebelled. In the end, Mortanius the Guardian of Death and Moebius the Guardian of Time led the revolt against the vampiric members of the Pillar Guardians and overthrew them along with their Ancient forefathers. The Ancients and their history slowly died out over the ages, and the only one to survive long enough to be seen in the games was the secret tenth Guardian (of the Reaver ), Janos Audron , who commissioned and guarded the Soul Reaver, a weapon intended to be used by a prophesied hero who would one day restore the Pillars to the rule of the Vampires. With Janos Audron being cast into the Demon Dimension in'' Blood Omen 2'' by the Hylden Lord, the Ancients exist only in Nosgoth in the memories of the ageless or within myth and legend. Physiology The Ancients were almost identical to the traditional imagery of an Angel just with very striking differences. The Ancients had blue skin, which according to various sources, ranged from baby blue to turquoise to slightly darker blue. Their hair was usually black while the colour of their eyes may have been as varied as humans. However the eyes of the Tenth Guardian Janos Audron were yellow so their eyes may have been far more varied than human eyes could have ever been. Their most distinguishing feature was their magnificently beautiful black feathered wings that extended from their shoulders. It is common knowledge that their wings near effortlessly provided them with flight , a testament to just how powerful they were. Another defining feature of the Ancients, albeit possibly after the infliction of the curse, was their fangs. These fangs could have easily punctured flesh allowing quick access to blood. An interesting development was the devolving of Janos Audron into The Beast . When consistently drained of blood by the Hylden in order to sustain The Mass his weakened body transformed into the Beast. If this solely happened as a side effect of being denied blood, something his and his race become dependant on due to the blood curse, is highly possible as it is highly unlikely this would have happened to the benevolent Ancients of the past. It is also highly probable that, if put through the same trauma, other Ancients may have also become beasts just like Janos. Legacy Although the obvious legacy of the Ancients are the Vampires, they are not the only things they created. Though not the direct creators of the legendary blade the Reaver, it is known that they sanctioned its creation at the hands of the weapon smith Vorador . They also fused it with their curse, giving it their blood lust effectively making it into the Blood Reaver, a weapon that drained its opponents dry and destined to be the weapon of the Scion of Balance . They may have also been the creators, or again ordered the creation of, three spears that murals have suggested were wielded by the Ancients. The spears were named the 'Blood Drinker' Artefact, the 'Heart Seeker' Artefact and the 'Soul Stealer' Artefact.Much like the Blood Reaver, which became the Soul Reaver, they may have had vampire energies as well. Centuries later they were all in the care of Vorador in his Mansion and they were used by Raziel to create a portal to the Water Forge . It is also highly likely that the original builders of the Forges were in fact the Ancients also. The Fire Forge beneath Janos Audron's aerie may be evidence of this. Notes It is likely that the name "Vampire" was the original name for the species before the curse, Given that the Feral Humans in the Vampire Citadel clearly use the name, though the name has become associated with the 'children' created by the Ancients when they passed on their curse. Interestingly, the murals of the Ancients bear some resemblance to the classical depictions of angels in many religions as winged humans. Given how the ancient vampires were the original defenders of Nosgoth, the Ancients could be seen as the angels while the Hylden could be seen as demons or rebel angels who were casted into Hell as punishment for their rebellion (particularly due to their demonic associations), while Kain could be considered a messianic figure in the Nosgoth universe. Category:Races Category:Vampires